Cable operators have widely deployed high-speed data services on cable television systems. These data services allow subscriber-side devices, such as personal computers, to communicate over an ordinary cable TV network Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) cable. A Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) connects the cable TV network to a data network, such as the Internet. The Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) is one of the cable modem standards used for transferring data over the cable TV network.
DOCSIS specifies that the cable modems obtain upstream bandwidth according to a request/grant scheme. A cable modem sends a bandwidth allocation request when subscriber devices need to send traffic upstream into the cable network. The CMTS grants these requests using bandwidth grant MAP messages. Under certain circumstances, upstream transmissions from the cable modems can be bottlenecked by upstream bandwidth limitations. The disclosure that follows solves this and other problems.